News — birth story

At 4pm I started to get what I thought was Braxton Hicks. I continued on my evening and had dinner (which later would come back up!). We went to bed and I started listening to positive affirmations and timing the contractions. I couldn't sleep and kept waking up every 10 minutes. At midnight we got up and went into the lounge. I had to lean over the chair as I was so uncomfortable and we decided at 1am to ring the midwife to see where we were at. Unfortunately, she said I was a while away from needing to make...

I was 39 weeks pregnant when I sat under a Potutukawa tree at my local cafe, sipping horrible decaf coffee, crying. I was sore, tired, swollen and enormous with my baby bump. It had been a hard month of sleepless nights, mood swings and dramatic Braxton Hicks that my midwife was not interested in hearing about. It’s not labour, she insisted. Have a shower and go to bed early, she advised. I was over it. Please baby, please come soon I prayed, as I gazed up at the crimson red blooms above me. I didn’t know how much longer I...